Soon made they every preparation For a most brilliant coronation: ’Twas on, as must each bard remember, The nineteenth day of _dark_ November[4] When all the streets were strew’d with sand, T’ exhibit a procession grand; And the Cathedral, lately scorn’d, With sumptuous frippery adorn’d. Brave Bonaparte and Josephine, Preceded by the Pope, walked in; His Holiness the crown anointed, And Boney Emperor appointed. Then Corsica’s impatient son, Snatch’d up the Crown, and put it on. The Crown was decked with French frippery, And with the oil, was rendered slippery; Nap kept it on, tho’, without dread, To let them know _he had a head_. And as to dally he was loth, He rapidly pronounc’d the oath-- As soon as he the oath had swallow’d, Another Coronation follow’d-- Fair Josephine advanced, and lo! Nap put on her a crown also. ‘Ah me!’ thought she, ‘there’s something wrong, I fear it will drop off ’ere long.’ Of holy oil, it seems, the fair Had got too plentiful a share. This pantomimic business o’er, Now marched they grandly as before; For, tinsell’d pageantry united With an equestrian troop, delighted The new-made Emperor of Paris, As much as Covent Garden Harris; And all the people, for this wise end, Were in the finest garments dizen’d; They finish’d with illuminations, Songs, music, dancing and orations. The white wine, which in fountains flow’d, Considerable mirth bestow’d. The folks enjoy’d, free of expence, The glare of lights, which was immense: And the new Emperor, with glee, Drank, till no longer he could see. [Illustration: JOSEPHINE AS EMPRESS.] Authentic news of the coronation did not reach England for nearly a fortnight, and it was not till December 15 that the ‘Times’ was able to give its readers a full account of the ceremony. ‘The Thunderer’ waxed very wroth about it, as may be seen by the following extract from its leader of that date:-- ‘The “Moniteur” merely insinuates that the sun miraculously penetrated through a thick fog, to be present at it: a compliment which is a little diminished by a subsequent assertion, that the lamps were afterwards able to supply his place by giving a noon-day brilliancy to the night. Then follows a disgusting hypocritical panegyric upon the union of civil and religious acts and ceremonies, the sublime representation of all that human and divine affairs could assemble to strike the mind--the venerable Apostolic virtues of the poor Pope, and the most astonishing genius of Buonaparte crowned by the most astonishing destiny! ‘The public will find these details, under their proper head, in this paper. To us, we confess, all that appears worthy of remark or memory in that opprobrious day is, that amongst all the Royalists and Republicans of France, it was able to produce neither a BRUTUS nor a CHŒREAS!